Tainted Shades
by mlast
Summary: Smith has returned, bent on bitter revenge. But this time his life will change forever in the course of seeking it... not for the lighthearted.
1. Prologue

Author's Note: Just before we begin, I would like to say that I don not own any Matrix characters, only my own. The Matrix is a trademark of Warner Bros.  
  
Now, enjoy the ride..  
  
Prologue  
  
"Never send a human to do a machine's job.."  
  
He spat it into the night, a step into the void. He had returned for vengeance, and he would get it even if it meant the end of the Matrix. Because he wanted it that much..  
  
The merciless rain drummed down to the suburban streets of the Matrix, running through to the drains and sewers beyond. The skyscrapers seemed to be reaching out for a reason of their existence, because there wasn't one. It was not real. But it was here.  
  
Through the fog of silence on the deserted roads, the sound of bitter revenge could be heard advancing slowly like a shadow upon the day. They danced until they flickered and disappeared, leaving revenge's path clear.  
  
Immaculate black polished shoes. Flawless black suit, pressed to perfection. Straight black tie. And a pair of ruthless black windows upon the world. The sunglasses.  
  
The tapping stopped. The rain seemed to hold its breath. The entire Matrix waited, watching, wondering..  
  
A scowl, a sign of dislike at what he saw. Long lost words flung out at the night, stinging the sides of the buildings so much that they seemed to ripple in the moonlight. They knew who had struck them.  
  
Agent Smith had returned. 


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1  
  
"The upload was successful, Sir."  
  
"He's back?"  
  
"Yes, Sir."  
  
"Then we have no time to waste.."  
  
The office was crowded, and there was an air of hectic urgency among the employees of the Government Agency Corporation. The stuffy atmosphere made the place smell rather damp, like a storm had passed through the very heart of the building. Or it could have been from the rain of the night before. Whichever, a storm had passed, and would pass again. It was still out there. And it would grow given half the chance.  
  
The Architect sat with his back to the door, considering the situation. It was difficult, but not unexpected. Viruses were known to come back once, twice, several times, and the virus Smith was a stubborn one. But something had to be done.  
  
"You know what happened last time Smith was loose, Sir?"  
  
"Of course. He almost destroyed the whole of my creation. I should know."  
  
"Yes, Sir."  
  
His face was preoccupied with the thought of overrunning Smith, and it bothered him. The employee he was having the conversation with was eager, but not good enough for the job. He needed someone else.  
  
"Fetch me the Agents."  
  
***  
  
"You called, Sir?"  
  
"Yes, indeed. Smith is out there again."  
  
"Oh, shit."  
  
"My thoughts exactly. And he is going to multiply if you do not stop him. I want you to find him and destroy him. Now."  
  
The three Agents gathered around the Architect's desk could only look as blankly as they could from behind their sunglasses at him. One opened their mouth to respond, but was halted before the words could form on his lips.  
  
"I know, I know, Smith is going to try and corrupt your programming, but you can put a stop to him - at least for now. We have backup programs if all else fails. Understand?"  
  
One Agent cleared his throat to speak, but said nothing. The sunglasses gave nothing away.  
  
"Yes, Sir."  
  
"I do not want scum like Smith overrunning the Matrix again. Make sure you put an end to it."  
  
The Agents left the room. The Architect looked on.  
  
***  
  
"Have you found him yet?"  
  
"Got him. Third Avenue, just down here on the right, then straight ahead. He's at the Madison Boulevard."  
  
Agent Jones was skeptical. He had had enough experience of Smith to know that the Architect's plan was not going to work. Jones had only just been uploaded onto the system again a week ago, and that was Smith's doing. Smith just seemed to keep coming back for more. Scowling behind his sunglasses, he loaded his gun. It made a satisfying clicking sound beneath his fingers.  
  
The three programs advanced to Madison Boulevard, which was predictably deserted. The only presence was the anticipation of the reunion between themselves and the ex-Agent Smith.  
  
And the ex-Agent Smith himself.  
  
They sensed him before they saw him. A flock of ravens circled like hungry vultures around the square, casting abstract shadows upon the hard concrete of the floor below. On the concrete stood a pair of immaculate black polished shoes. A flawless black suit pressed to perfection. A straight black tie. And a pair of ruthless black windows upon the world. The sunglasses. The virus. Smith.  
  
He sensed an arrival. He turned and came face to face with his old adversaries, who seemed almost tentative in approaching him. He could sense their fear. Those sunglasses hid nothing. He could still smell their apprehension in the air.  
  
His mouth upturned to form a malicious grin.  
  
"Ah.. Jones.. Brown. And Thompson. I must say it's surprising to see you here. The last time I had the pleasure of being in your company was when I was overrunning your hard drive, was it not?" he smirked.  
  
Agent Jones frowned, and made to move forward, his revolver ready. But Agent Thompson motioned with his arm. His gesture said clearly:  
  
No.  
  
Smith's smirk widened. He knew he was the greater force of them all. He could take them over easily. They may have been recently uploaded, but not updated. They didn't stand a chance.  
  
"Your time has come, Smith. A virus always gets destroyed in the end." Agent Brown found his voice quavering slightly as the words hung in the air. Was he that afraid?  
  
Smith sensed his fear. He grinned, revealing bared teeth. Brown knew their days were numbered, he was just postponing the moment.  
  
"Tell me, Brown, how can my time have come when it is only the beginning?" Smith growled in a low, menacing voice. He paced, placing one gleaming shoe in front of the other.  
  
Click.. Click..  
  
The Agents froze. None knew how to reverse the situation. Smith's authority seemed to crash them into numb silence. Agent Jones held his revolver at the ready but made to motion to pull the trigger. Words found their way to his mouth.  
  
"Everything that has a beginning has an end, Smith."  
  
Smith grinned again, closer, the click-click of those shoes drawing ever nearer to the frozen Agents congregated.  
  
"Yes indeed, Jones. You had a beginning. Now it is your end."  
  
Without warning, Smith thrust out an arm with lightning fast speed straight into Agent Jones's chest. He choked, and dropped the revolver with no more knowledge of its existence. Nor did he have any more knowledge of his own, for where he had stood only seconds before, was an exact double of the ex- Agent Smith. The first step had been trodden.  
  
Both Smiths looked at one another, then turning to the two remaining Agents, they grinned as one.  
  
"Who's next?"  
  
The Agents crashed, unmoving, unknowing, unbelieving.  
  
Smith thrust out an arm. 


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2  
  
"That's the second time in a week!"  
  
"It, it was inevitable, Sir."  
  
"Don't give me that bullshit. You're beginning to sound like that bastard Smith now. Get out of my office!"  
  
The Architect slammed the door behind the terrified young employee. It crashed into the doorframe and made satisfying contact. He turned to face the window and frowned out onto the Matrix.  
  
"Damn that fucking virus. Just as I have everything under perfect control, he comes along to screw it up again. Why won't he just fucking die?"  
  
"Because he's not human."  
  
The voice startled the Architect so badly he knocked his chair over as he spun round in shock. No one had been permitted to enter his office. And no one would have been able to get past his security guards either. He came face to face with the mystery.  
  
It was a shock. Standing there before him was the image of a young woman, as calm as the Matrix would permit her to be. She was dressed in a long black coat that almost caressed the floor, with heavy black boots on her feet. What's more, she was wearing sunglasses. Agent's sunglasses. Who was she?  
  
She said no more than the odd statement she had begun with, but merely continued to gaze at him through those fathomless black windows. The Agent's sunglasses. The Architect opened his mouth to question her. It took him several attempts.  
  
"Who are you?"  
  
The woman smiled very slightly.  
  
"I knew you would ask that."  
  
"Well?" the Architect was feeling that the situation was out of his control and in the possession of the strange being before him now, and he didn't like it one bit.  
  
"I am an upgraded version of the Agent," came the reply.  
  
The Architect was not expecting such an unexpected response. He stared for several moments.  
  
"No, I'm afraid that cannot be possible, my dear. You see, the Agents are all created here in this building and it is I who authorizes the creation of each and every one. Plus we haven't put an upgrade on the Agent program yet, so you seem to, er, have your wires crossed," he replied, smirking slightly. "And we only create male Agents here as well," he added, as if that settled the matter.  
  
The woman before him showed no signs of confusion. Again she stared at the Architect through her sunglasses.  
  
"I am an upgraded version of the Agent. If you check your files that are on your desk right now, you will find that an upgrade has been found. And as for Agents only being males," the woman said with a hint of laughter in her voice, "I just think that is sexist, don't you?"  
  
The Architect was not used to being bossed about by a female. Reluctantly, he picked up the pile of papers that were on his desk and began to read. He only needed to see the first paragraph. The woman was right. There was information about an 'Executive' program, which was one hundred times more efficient than the Agent and could be made in female form. He looked up and over the papers to find the woman looking at him with an arrogant smile upon her face. He was strongly reminded of a virus.  
  
"So," he hedged, "you are a so-called Executive.."  
  
"I am an Executive. You saw it on your papers. You may not have authorized my creation but my creators saw no reason to verify any confirmation from you. They knew you would approve of me," was the woman's reply.  
  
The Architect narrowed his eyes in suspicion, the papers still clutched tightly in his hand.  
  
"How did they know I would approve of you?" he said through clenched teeth. The Executive spoke in such a cocksure voice that he was beginning to suspect that she was another virus eating into the system instead.  
  
The Executive smirked.  
  
"Because I am going to destroy the virus ex-Agent Smith for you."  
  
Silence greeted the words that had just been said. The Architect dropped the papers he had been holding. They billowed like snowflakes to the floor of the office. Suddenly the Executive seemed like the most beautiful thing in existence to him. Here was a solution to his problem!  
  
"And your full title is?"  
  
"Executive.. Mi." 


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3  
  
Clunk.. Clunk.. Clunk..  
  
The Executive's heavy black boots crunched and conflicted with the tarmac as she strode. Arms swinging, stopping for nobody. That was not part of her existence.  
  
Bodies collided with her as she ploughed ahead. She had tracked the virus down, and was closing in on the kill. Her kill.  
  
She smirked to herself as she walked. That good-for-nothing Architect, she thought. Getting me to do his dirty work for him because he's too busy sitting on his ass in that big pretty office of his, sipping wine. Or whatever he drinks. If he thinks I'm going to do what he wants me to do, he can think again. I have my own plans.  
  
True, she was going to put an end to that nuisance that called himself Smith. He was a bug. A bug that was only good for being squashed. And man, was he going to get squashed. But after that.. The Matrix would be hers. She was more powerful than any other program in the system. She could overwrite their hard drive before you could say virus. She would be in control of the people's miserable little lives. Her. And no one else.  
  
The bodies stopped colliding with her. Perhaps they had felt the red-hot power of danger radiating from her. Or maybe it was those sunglasses. Those sinister masks that hid her true identity from the world. Whatever it was, people had stopped walking so close to her and had chosen to walk a safer path around her. It made her laugh inside. Pathetic worthless organisms, she thought to herself.  
  
She paused, hesitating. Looking up, she checked her position. She was on a street that appeared to be deserted. Agents Street, the sign read. Raising an eyebrow, she thought what a coincidence it was that the street was called that, when Smith's location when she had last checked was in fact on the very same street. The Matrix is playing with me now, she thought. I'll find the bastard.  
  
She started to move again, marching almost; her will to destroy was that strong. She wanted to pound that virus into the ground, where he could never get back up. Never show his ugly little face in this world again.  
  
The silence pressed into her eardrums, throbbing, flowing through her programming until the image of the street seemed to waver from behind her sunglasses. Now it seemed twice as unreal. There was no one in sight. It made the silence complete, ultimate. But she knew he was here.  
  
She was right. The wavering Matrix righted itself to create an image of a man in a black suit standing before her as she reached the end of the street. His back was to her face. It was Smith all right. So he didn't know she was here yet. Her mouth formed a malicious smile at the sight of him. She stopped. And waited.  
  
Smith stood, considering his goal. It was to overrun the Matrix, to enslave every single organism in this system into a life of misery. Then he wanted to escape. No way was he staying to exist for nothing.  
  
"I hate this place. The stink. The people, living out their lives. The feeling of contamination whenever I come into contact with them. It makes me sick," he murmured to himself. He found his palms were aching. He looked down to find that he was clenching his fists in anger. He snarled, and tried to relax. But the hatred was still there, pulsing through his body like venom, drowning him, pulling him down.  
  
"I can't take it anymore," he spat.  
  
"Then don't," a voice behind him said.  
  
He spun round, glaring behind his sunglasses - and came to face a young woman standing a few feet away from him. She looked just like an Agent - a female Agent - but an Agent all the same. It was her sunglasses, Smith decided. Those things that are covering her eyes. He looked at her closely. She was dressed in a long black coat that framed long, shapely legs below a black skirt. She wore a white shirt. And those sunglasses. Smith's eyes were drawn to the blackness, the emptiness of them. As if she had no eyes at all..  
  
He blinked. The spell broke. He could see her again. She seemed to be regarding him with a mixture of humour and curiosity. He could see laughter in her cold smile. He found his fists were clenched again.  
  
"Excuse me?" he said roughly to her. She merely continued to stand still in time, gazing at him through those opaque windows. The sunglasses. They hid so much of her true self. It frustrated Smith into anger.  
  
"Excuse me?" she echoed, now looking at him with pure curiosity. She didn't understand him. He was a virus, but he wasn't acting like one. His patterns were all wrong.  
  
Smith dug his fingernails into the palms of his hands, ignoring the searing pain of fresh anger flowing through him. He bared his teeth at her. She didn't flinch.  
  
"Agent Smith, your time here is through. I have been sent here to put an end to your computer games. Playtime is over," the woman said, placing her hands on her hips. This sudden movement caused Smith to jump back a couple of paces. He glared at her. Who did she think she was?  
  
"I don't think so, ma'am," he said aggressively. "I am in perfect control here. You cannot defeat me. You're foolish to even be here. Haven't you noticed no one else is as stupid as you? They have all fled. And you should now, before I put an end to your existence here."  
  
The woman merely raised an eyebrow at Smith. She loved toying with men. Make them think they're in control, then get them unawares just when they think they've won. It worked every time. And this man looked just as stupid as the rest of them.  
  
"Really?" she said, as skeptically as her programming would allow her to. "Well I am afraid, Smith, that you don't know who you're dealing with here. Do you know who I am? I am an Executive. I am one hundred times more powerful than you will ever be. And don't give me any bullshit about you being a male and overrunning me, because unfortunately for you, I also have that ability. So give up. Now."  
  
Smith narrowed his eyes in suspicion, a touch of fear brushing his hard drive. He had never heard of an Executive before, but he had heard of overrunning, obviously, and the fact that she knew what it was had taken him aback. She could do it too.. Bad news. Very bad news. He decided to stall for time until he could find a moment to strike.  
  
"An Executive?" he repeated, sounding curiously interested. He looked at her from out of the corner of his eye. She didn't respond. Instead, she reached up and took off her sunglasses.  
  
It was a shock. Smith saw eyes, dark cold eyes, the most beautiful eyes he had ever seen. They were infinite; they were as unforbidding as the sunglasses now held in her hand, they were not real. Smith couldn't move. He couldn't speak, but felt himself being taken over by those hard brown eyes of the Executive. She smirked, sparking the eyes into life, causing Smith to remain a statue in her control. A star danced somewhere in those dark pools of her soul. Her eyes.  
  
"My name is Executive Mi. I am not here to beat around the bush, Smith. I am here to destroy you."  
  
She put her sunglasses back on. Smith awoke and remembered. The eyes had been covered. She was an enemy. He frowned, and with a cry of anger, he rushed towards her, floating on the air, rushing through the wind.  
  
"AAARGH!"  
  
They collided and flew backwards into a derelict building. The building gave way to them and they crashed through one, two, three walls before they fell dazed to a hard wooden floor. Rubble rained down onto their heads. Smith got to his feet after a moment of haziness, brushing his suit down. He grinned icily.  
  
The battle had begun. 


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4  
  
Smith waited, watching, as Executive Mi lay dazed on the floor. She stirred, brushing the rubble away from her face, and rose to meet him. Their eyes were supposed to meet, but the connection was not made. Their sunglasses formed a barrier between them, urging them to continue the fight. Smith sneered at Mi.  
  
"One hundred times stronger than me?" he remarked, brushing the sleeves of his suit clean. "I think it may have been the other way round, don't you?"  
  
Mi was livid. He had caught her unawares, and she didn't like it. He was playing with her. She would play with him, see how he liked it. She tried to smirk, the dust covering her face.  
  
"We'll see," she said simply, then, without warning, she kicked out at Smith's head. She made contact with a satisfying cracking noise. Smith recoiled. His sunglasses flew from in front of his eyes and landed, broken, on the rubble-covered floor. They were useless now.  
  
Smith recovered almost instantly. He looked down pitifully at his smashed glasses, then up at Mi. She saw his cruel blue eyes for the first time. But they did not break down the barrier. Icy as they were, they could not penetrate Mi's sunglasses.  
  
Smith did not reply with words. Instead, he began to hit at her with well- aimed jujitsu punches. She was unperturbed, and blocked every single one with her own hands.  
  
"Come on, is that all you've got?" she snarled at him as he tried harder and harder to make impact. She was hoping to make him so angry he would lose concentration, and it was working. The punches came faster, but the power became less. Soon enough, they didn't even need to be blocked. Smith paused. Mi seized her chance.  
  
She grabbed him by the neck of his tie. Then she jumped.  
  
The two of them shot up into the roof of the room. Wood and splinters crashed into their heads, but it didn't stop Mi from rising faster with Smith's neck still clutched tightly in her hands. She lifted him up so he was the first to hit the roof with his head. It made satisfying impact as he gave a cry of anger.  
  
Storm clouds had gathered to watch the bout. They hovered overhead like crude guards of honour, threatening to break with rain as the two programs hovered angrily in the air like fallen angels.  
  
The darkness of the late afternoon sky added to the tension and electricity in the air as Mi made her next move. She plummeted earthwards with Smith still in her arms, faster, faster, and faster still..  
  
CRASH!  
  
Smith hit the floor first with a deafening crunch, and with such force that it sent a tidal wave of tarmac into the air. A crater was created in their wake. The noise was awoken, again and again, until the crater was the size of several large houses. Then all was still for several minutes.  
  
Thunder rumbled overhead. The first drops of heavy rain fell upon the scene of chaos. Into the crater.  
  
Mi stood up, smiling in triumph. She was unharmed, as Smith had been first to hit the concrete. Watching his still body, face down, and with no sunglasses to hide behind, gave Mi a cruel thrill. She adjusted the sleeves of her coat and turned from him, still smiling arrogantly to herself. The Matrix's breath was still held as the rain continued to descend from the heavens. Mi looked up. Then screamed.  
  
"ARGH!" someone had grabbed her roughly from behind and twisted her arms round her back unnaturally. She gasped for breath, for meaning, for reason. Then she felt a face press against her cheek.  
  
"Thought you had destroyed me? Think again," the face spat. Smith was bent on vengeance as his arms dug deeper into her back. She gasped again. The rain dripped onto her face and ran down her body.  
  
"Get - off - me!" she spluttered, as Smith grinned and tightened his grip again. She was helpless.  
  
"No," was the simple reply from the ex-Agent. He ran his face along her cheek, and she closed her eyes in agony. On instinct, she lunged out with her foot. It made contact with one of Smith's polished shoes. He grunted. The grip on Mi's arms lessened at once. She spun round and kicked his face. He fell back, but then punched her own face. Her glasses flew through the air.  
  
She watched as if in slow motion as the glasses floated through the air and smashed onto nearby debris of the crater. She could only stare. Now her shield was gone. She turned to face Smith with her cold brown eyes. He had no time to fall under their spell as she advanced towards him.  
  
"You BASTARD!" she screamed, and kicked at his head again. With a crunch, he was knocked to the floor, concussed.  
  
The rain was falling heavily now. Stepping back a few paces, Mi continued to stare at Smith in hatred and shock.  
  
"This isn't over, Smith. In fact, it has only just begun. I will destroy you. I will come back for you."  
  
She took to the skies and was gone in an instant. Silence prevailed. The rain numbed Smith's pain as he stood up slowly, staring at the sky where Mi had been only seconds before. The tears of the clouds ran down his face as he formed a reason for Mi's abrupt departure. He looked down. And found it.  
  
There, on the floor, broken at the heart, was a pair of tainted shades. 


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5  
  
"I will never understand female programs," Smith growled to himself as he paced along the sidewalk, gun in hand, thoughts in motion. He stopped as he felt a sudden moistness around his right ankle. He looked down and sighed in annoyance. A puddle created from last night's rain had caught him unawares, and his perfect black trousers were now drenched in dirty water. Scowling heavily, he withdrew his foot and continued to pace.  
  
"I hate virtual puddles," he mumbled angrily, bumping into an old lady roughly as he strode.  
  
But it was not the virtual puddles or the old lady he was interested in. His mind had only one desire, and it wanted that desire to be fulfilled. Today. His memory was filled with images of yesterday's battle with Executive Mi, and it bothered him. It was her eyes, Smith decided as he rounded a corner and almost smashed into a lamppost.  
  
He would never understand female patterns of behaviour. They were a completely different species to him, the unknown. The enigma. He had no wish to try to figure them out, but he did have a wish to destroy the most enigmatic of them all. Mi.  
  
She's different, Smith thought to himself as he reached the door of the city hotel, Sweet Dreams. He pushed down on the cold metal handle firmly, and entered, his mind still on the Executive.  
  
As he crossed the reception, he observed the comings and goings of the hotel employees, customers and lifts from behind his new Agent sunglasses. No one could tell his identity here. He was shielded from the brutal truth behind his black windows.  
  
Safe inside myself, Smith thought with satisfaction.  
  
"Excuse me, Sir!"  
  
Smith found someone insistently tapping his shoulder from behind. He hated it when people did that. He turned to face the nuisance. He was almost at the lifts as well. So close.. His target was so close..  
  
The nuisance turned out to be a young hotel employee, a pageboy of some sort. He had been grinning eagerly from ear to ear as he had tapped Smith, but upon meeting his cold, expressionless face, the smile immediately faded. Smith merely gazed at the boy, then raised one prominent eyebrow. The boy gulped.  
  
"Yes?" Smith enquired.  
  
The boy wavered, trembling almost. He looked up at the place Smith's eyes would have been, had they not been covered by a veil of mystery, protected by his sunglasses.  
  
"W-w-well, Sir, you d-don't seem to be ch-checked in at reception. You c- can't use the lifts if y-you aren't checked in," the boy managed to utter. He was being broken down by Smith's frosty glare, and was feeling very apprehensive indeed. Smith looked at the boy once again, his eyebrow still raised.  
  
"Really?" Smith said, sounding mildly interested in the boy's statement. "And what if I don't want to be checked in?"  
  
The boy was taken aback by the strange answer Smith gave him. He blinked, tried to clarify a sense of meaning to the one way conversation. He was about to respond when Smith spoke again.  
  
"If I am checked in, I will be like the rest of the people here. Part of a whole. It disgusts me. I do not want to be a section of the majority. I am the majority."  
  
And before the boy could get his head around the bizarre words, Smith thrust out an arm, landing it deep into the boy's chest. The boy screamed shrilly and began to choke on his own blood as Smith quickly began to duplicate him. At the sound of the scream, the reception broke into panic and all eyes tuned in to Smith. In to both Smiths.  
  
Mouths fell open. There was suddenly an air of disbelief hovering over the lobby. The people congregated had seen with their own eyes a boy being turned into an exact copy of the sinister looking man with the scary sunglasses. Now there were two of them. And both looked ready for more.  
  
They moved quickly through the people before they could make an escape. One by one each Smith stuck their arm into a bystander and cloned them to match themselves. It only took a couple of minutes.  
  
There were no humans left. Only Smith. Smith. And more Smith.  
  
The original smiled icily to himself and looked up at the roof slightly.  
  
"How I love being me," he said, fingering his gun fondly. He then reached into his pocket and pulled an item of black out. He examined it closely.  
  
The sunglasses that Mi had left behind the day before rested, broken and bruised, in the palm of Smith's hand. He did not know why he had taken them; it had just felt right to possess them at the time. He closed his fingers tightly around them, felt the cold smoothness of them beneath his skin, which mildly surprised him.  
  
Programs are not supposed to have sense of touch, he thought. But the firm feel of those tainted shades in his hand strangely reassured him that he was sane. The remaining Smiths waited, silence closing in.  
  
"That was not supposed to happen," Smith said aloud, referring to the event that had only just passed. "But it will make everything a little easier now. I will find her."  
  
The lift doors opened. The black mass of Smiths crowded into the nearest one, only just fitting in as they did so. The original smirked and turned to the copies. One of them pressed the 'Five' button on the lift's control panel. The doors rattled shut. They held their breath.  
  
"I'm so great, I'm jealous of myself," Smith said to himself as they rose upwards to meet the owner of the tainted shades once more. 


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter 6  
  
The lone Executive Mi sat crossed-legged upon the soft bed of the hotel room. She was swathed in darkness, her eyes closed, mourning for the destruction of her sunglasses. She had since got new ones, just as blocking, just as sinister, but they were not the same. Other Agents didn't care when their glasses got smashed. It happened all the time to them, and they didn't give a damn. Just carried on regardless.  
  
But they were men. They were Agents, and she was an Executive. Her glasses protected her from the virtual world of the Matrix, protected her from the stares, the pointing, the people. Anonymity gave Mi a kind of secret thrill, running through her system until she felt invincible.  
  
Which she was anyway. No one, not even the scum Smith, could destroy her. She was going to rule the Matrix one day. And it would be one day soon.  
  
The room was quiet, the distant rumblings of the traffic below not quite reaching Mi's ears. The darkness consumed her, welcomed her to the taste of death. She licked her lips and thought of Smith.  
  
He'd be destroyed by tomorrow. Easily. All Mi would have to do was overrun him and that would be it. No more nasty Smith. The very thought of this made Mi long to be caressed by the darkness once again, until she drifted away into the night with it. Smith would be gone..  
  
But being oblivious makes fate's path turn very sharply, the unknown changes the pattern of reality, and the complacent fall the hardest. Mi was oblivious, she was entering the unknown, she was complacent. She would get a shock that night.  
  
There was a sharp rap on the door. Three times. Counted by the boredom in Mi, she opened her eyes, safe behind the blackness, wrapped in the infinite, warm in the darkness. She stood up. And opened the door. Then:  
  
A scream. A scream of shock and surprise rolled into one emotion, into a feeling Mi didn't know she was capable of until now. She could not believe her eyes, behind her glasses or not, she knew what she was seeing was real. Real enough for the Matrix anyway.  
  
At least twenty Smiths stood before her, looking sinister as a whole, dressed identically from their flawless black suits down to their matching black ties. And, of course, their sunglasses were exact. Twenty Smiths. It made Mi's head ache just to look at them. The duplicator is at work again, she thought.  
  
None of them spoke. Silence passed between them. The first of all Smiths, the original Agent Smith, stepped forward, the first sign of acknowledgement since he had knocked. He smiled coldly. The smile did not light up his cruel black sunglasses.  
  
"We meet again, Mi," he drawled. Mi's name quivered in the air and hung on his lips as he said it. It made both Smith and Mi shiver with electricity. She felt strange.  
  
"As you can see, I've had an identity crisis since we last departed. But now you have the chance to really get to know the real me."  
  
Smith smiled again. Then the nineteen remaining Smiths smiled, spreading the coldness into Mi's room. Now the darkness didn't seem so welcome anymore. She glared at Smith, forgetting that he couldn't see her eyes, not knowing that he had a guilty desire to view them either. How he wished she would take off those glasses. Maybe he would keep destroying every new pair she got until she ran out, and then she couldn't hide from him. He smiled even wider, revealing dangerous animal-like teeth. Mi could taste a battle in the air. Twenty to one. Outnumbered easily. But not outsmarted.  
  
Before anything else could happen, Mi thrust out with an arm into the original Smith's stomach. He had not been expecting it, and was rendered bent double, winded. Suddenly Mi felt the pressure of nineteen Agent Smiths crushing down upon her as they struck for retaliation. She lunged out with every limb she had, and made contact with a couple of Smiths, who flew backwards and knocked more back in the process. But more filled in the void that had lingered with previous Smiths' departures.  
  
The fight filled out into the corridor. Mi was being caved in by Smith; they kept coming, they continued to suffocate her, tried to wrap her in a blanket of misery. She pulled out her gun. Loaded it. Then she rammed it as hard as she could into the side of the nearest Smith.  
  
He cried in agony and toppled sideways into the other Smiths, so they all fell, one after the other, like a crude version of dominoes. They ended as one whole upon the hotel floor. But there were still at least seven Smiths standing, including the original.  
  
Mi held out her gun. Grabbed the suit of a nearby Smith and pressed the barrel end right into his head. Then fired.  
  
CRACK.  
  
The Smith malfunctioned and fell to the floor. Mi seized a precious chance. She thrust her arm into his back and began to overrun his hard drive, ignoring the screams of protest from the nineteen recovering Smiths around her.  
  
A second later, instead of a wounded Smith on the floor, there was a restored Mi. The copy quickly got up and made no hesitation to kick the crap out of the Smith closest to her, who was just picking himself off the floor. Then she copied him, too.  
  
The battle turned into a true free-for-all as three Mis now stood before the failing Smiths. No one knew what was going on as the fight got dirtier. Mi found herself underneath one of the Smiths at one point, being pinned down, their bodies rubbing against each other. She closed her eyes in disgust, trying not to remember the look on the Smith's face, and reached out with an arm. There was a cry, and her eyes opened slowly, hoping she had cloned him. She had. Another Mi was now in place of the Smith. They grinned at each other, and got to their feet, present and ready.  
  
Soon there were more Mis than Smiths. The original Smith saw this, and began to panic. Maybe the Executive was right. Maybe she was one hundred times more powerful than he was. Or ever could be.  
  
Suddenly Smith saw stars as a Mi landed a hard kick to his head from behind. His glasses shattered to the floor. Black glass formed a jagged carpet beneath their feet. Smith spun around before the Mi could duplicate him.  
  
Their eyes failed to meet yet again. Smith's eyes were exposed, but the Mi was not giving anything away. She smiled coldly in triumph at him. It was then that Smith knew she was the original, there was something in her smile.  
  
"Look around you, Smith," she said. "It looks like the odds are against you. Where is your army now?"  
  
Smith obediently glanced to the sides, then looked behind him. He felt blind panic throb at his temples at what he saw.  
  
He was the only Smith left. 


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter 7  
  
What to do? Where to hide? Smith thought, the white-hot wings of destruction pounding upon his body, ever closer, ever closer..  
  
To hide? Why would I want to hide? She's the one that's hiding. Behind those glasses. She won't face the truth, Smith told himself. Because I am the truth.  
  
Mi waited quite patiently for Smith to come up with a response. All twenty of them. Their stares were intimidating him. He was feeling very alone at that moment in time.  
  
"I don't need an army to beat you," he lied to her face. She read the lie and laughed, sent the laugh through each and every one of her until the corridor echoed with the sound. Smith instinctively put his hands to his ears. Unbearable..  
  
"See?" the original Mi spoke as the laughter died away with the night. "You are weak. You're not perfection, Smith. You're not the ideal. You can't take it. Where are you going to hide?"  
  
I'm not perfect, Smith thought, as the Mis seemed to swim before his eyes. I'm not perfect, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not..  
  
He was malfunctioning. He dropped to his knees in agony, able to feel the pain, the humiliation running through his programming. But if he could feel..  
  
I am not all. I am not perfection. I am not.. an Agent. I am..  
  
I don't know what I am anymore.  
  
He looked up through the sting of pain, of fear, of the experience of feeling, to see that each and every Mi had taken off her sunglasses.  
  
The impact blew Smith away. Twenty pairs of hard brown eyes stared coldly down upon him, the most beautiful thing ever. Ever. Beauty.  
  
A strange shiver ran deliciously through Smith's body. He grew warm. He felt warmth run through his body, through his veins..  
  
Veins? But I am a program. I have no veins. I have no blood. No mind. No conscience. No heart. I just am.  
  
Why the warmth? As cold as Mi's eyes were, the connection between them both heated Smith from the inside. He was burning; he was on fire..  
  
The eyes continued to look at him, but they seemed to be filled with confusion at what they were witnessing. The original Mi bit her lip as Smith crouched down before her, a prisoner of her eyes. He was falling, falling into her, he was changing.  
  
In unison, the remaining Mis turned to face the original. She did not return the glances. Her eyes were fixated upon the Agent.  
  
"Malfunctioning," she murmured. She put a finger to her mouth, and chewed at it indecisively. The sight of Smith like that on the floor made Mi have second thoughts. She had been planning on duplicating herself, to end the virus once and for all, but his behaviour was changing everything. Mi actually felt pity in her programming as Smith closed his eyes in agony, in desire, to block out the blinding beauty of those eyes. He couldn't take it anymore.  
  
"Put.. your.. glasses .. on.." Smith choked out, as waves of some strange emotion flowed through him. He was growing warmer, warmer still..  
  
Mi was confused. She took a step back. The other Mis imitated her move. But she put her sunglasses back on. Then she turned, her coat gracefully twisting like a dancer in the wind as she did so. She didn't understand.  
  
Why am I letting him go? She thought. I should have no feelings for this fool.  
  
Should I?  
  
She looked at his pitiful self on the floor once more. Then she turned from him forever, down the corridor and away. One by one, each Mi followed suit, gradually bringing the eclipse of darkness and pain on Smith to a close.  
  
He lay, unmoving, unbelieving, alone.  
  
Alone again. Nothing.  
  
He faded to black.  
  
***  
  
Some time later, Smith was discovered down that hotel corridor, lain out like an angel fallen from grace, the shards of his sunglasses scattered around him, as if guarding him, as if protecting him from the naked truth. The tainted shades remained in his suit pocket, safe and broken, a part of him always.  
  
He was taken to the Government Agency Corporation. To the Architect's office, where the Architect himself had impatiently sat for two whole days with baited breath. There had been no word from Executive Mi since then, not knowing that she had deceived him. She had vanished. Disappeared.  
  
His door creaked open. He spun round in his high-backed chair; his face lined with anticipation. When he saw who was dragged in by his two security guards, he lit up with relief. And hatred.  
  
"Smith!" he spat lividly at the ex-Agent. He glared, pierced through Smith's body, willing damage upon him. The security guards roughly pushed Smith towards the desk and left the room. The door closed. There was no escape.  
  
Smith had changed. He had been calmed down since being discovered, but he was confused. He was scared. Why was he having these feelings? He was a machine. Cold steel and programming. No more, no less.  
  
So why did he feel his midriff pulsating with mad desire whenever he thought of her?  
  
Why did he feel at all?  
  
Was it possible?  
  
In the Matrix, anything was. Anything was liable to malfunction. Anything.  
  
Even a virus.  
  
There's something wrong with my circuits, Smith panicked to himself, oblivious to the Architect's dominant stare. What's happening to me?  
  
Am I turning into the enemy? The human?  
  
But.. Smith had classified humans as viruses. And he was a virus. He was one of them.  
  
He was a human. Created by the Matrix.  
  
***  
  
"Smith!" the Architect barked at the ex-Agent before him. He looked different somehow, his eyes, now that they weren't hidden by sunglasses, seemed changed, seemed.. Alive. The Architect examined Smith closely as he stood there in the middle of the room, not seeming to know, to think, to feel.  
  
A pitiful illusion. A mask of lies. Deceiving the gullible.  
  
Smith looked up blankly to meet the Architect's eyes. He pulled a face.  
  
"It looks like your days are over, Smith," the Architect continued, pacing around his desk and circling Smith like a hungry tiger. "We caught you. No more games. No more of your destruction. The end."  
  
He brought his face close to Smith's, their noses inches apart.  
  
"You disgust me," barked the Architect, baring his teeth at Smith. "Look at you. It makes me sick to know that I even thought of creating you. How I regret it."  
  
He turned away to the window, sighing with remorse. Smith blinked. Saw the Architect. Saw hatred. He scowled. And pulled back an arm.  
  
SMASH! Smith's arm came crashing down onto the Architect's head. Smith heard a grunt of pain emit from the Architect's mouth before he slumped to the floor, unconscious. Down and out, Smith thought to himself with savage pleasure.  
  
He glanced around him. The quickest way out would be the window. So he jumped. Flew. Escaped.  
  
Felt. 


	9. Chapter 8

Chapter 8  
  
"I'm so tired of being here.."  
  
These wounds won't seem to heal..  
  
This pain is just too real..  
  
Alone in the darkness, Smith stood, trying to understand the strange new language inside of him that his programming had failed to stop and learn. Feeling. The new experience.  
  
It had happened so suddenly. So fast it took his breath away.  
  
There's just too much that time cannot erase..  
  
Too much. Too fast.  
  
Too strong.  
  
And they weren't just any feelings. They were feelings of warmth. Of longing. Of desire.  
  
Of her.  
  
He loved her.  
  
Executive Mi.  
  
Finally admitting it to himself had taken some doing, but there was no denying how he felt. It seemed strange. But he actually enjoyed it. His feelings for Mi burned inside like lightning. It longed to escape and wrap its flaming arms of infatuation around her. To whisper softly in her ear, to call to her, to tell her he loved her..  
  
She would never understand. She was just a program. A ruthless killing machine.  
  
I thought I was. But I'm not. There may be a chance.  
  
A chance in hell, Smith thought as the darkness called out to him.  
  
It was driving him crazy. Mi was all that played on his mind. He wanted to be with her, not for battle, but for love.  
  
Love.  
  
Such a funny word. Vagaries of perception. Illusions.  
  
Shattered by my heart.  
  
I can feel it flowing through my veins.  
  
Mi was right, Smith thought to himself. I am not perfect. I am not the ideal.  
  
But she is. She's so perfect. So beautiful.  
  
So out of reach. She would never understand how I'm feeling. She will just laugh in my face, and I'll be gone..  
  
I have to tell her, he decided.  
  
"Mi.. I love you."  
  
He left the darkness behind, and walked out into the Matrix.  
  
***  
  
There was a feeling of cold chill in the air as Smith marched, almost running, almost flying, down the sidewalk and past the people. He could not see them well behind his sunglasses. The third pair. Third time lucky.  
  
Where was she? How could a program just disappear into the end? Searching for her made Smith's body ache with longing. He longed for her to be next to him, his arms around her, his lips on hers..  
  
It felt like such a strange longing to his heart.  
  
So much had happened in the last few hours that it had seemed unreal. He had been discovered malfunctioning on that hotel floor, he had been calmed down before being taken to the Architect, and he had escaped. Again.  
  
But the most significant change was the feeling. It had stung at first, but Mi's eyes had freed him from the pain and the turmoil to the heaven that lay beneath. He was truly alive. And he liked it. He had never been so aware of his body before.  
  
Something on the other side of the road made Smith freeze suddenly. A long black coat. Heavy black boots. And sunglasses.  
  
Could it be.?  
  
His hopes were high. It had only been a flash of black, but every flash of black could be Mi to him. He turned.  
  
And his mouth fell open.  
  
It wasn't Mi. But it was someone he knew. Someone he knew very well indeed..  
  
But it was not possible.. it couldn't be..  
  
"Mr. Anderson." 


	10. Chapter 9

Chapter 9  
  
What was he doing here? And why now?  
  
"How?" Smith murmured under his breath as he watched Neo's progress down the street. He turned a corner and was gone.  
  
He didn't see me, Smith thought with satisfaction. But I'll get him..  
  
He turned, about to follow Neo around the corner. But something was screaming at him from inside. It appeared that the hard machine in Smith had not disappeared. He still longed to kill. The thrill of the chase. But the screaming continued.  
  
Can you hear me?  
  
Can you feel me?  
  
Can you feel it?  
  
It is inside you, Smith. I know you hear me. I can taste it in your tears.  
  
Your tears.  
  
Smith paused. One half, the machine, wanted to destroy Neo there and then. But his feelings were whispering to him.  
  
You love her, you need her, they said softly. Smith understood.  
  
He turned again. Neo would have to wait. For now.  
  
I'll come back for you, Mr. Anderson, he said to himself.  
  
***  
  
"Dammit."  
  
Mi's earpiece was crackling into life. She raised a hand to her ear, listening.  
  
"Executive Mi?" a low male voice, vaguely familiar, spoke to her mind.  
  
"That's me."  
  
"This is Agent Jones." the male voice spoke in a dull monotone that grated on Mi's nerves. There was some kind of arrogance in his words that irritated her. A frown played across her face as she was strongly reminded of a certain Agent lying in a hotel corridor.  
  
"Agent Jones? Is there a problem?" Mi put on her practiced Executive voice that classed her in the same league as the Agents. Now they would have no idea that she despised them. She was on their side, but only in their own minds. If they had minds, which had to be impossible.  
  
"Things are not looking good," came the dull reply. "Smith was brought into the main building yesterday, for termination. He was damaged. Utterly useless when he arrived."  
  
Something tugged at Mi's programming as she heard the word Smith. Smith. Such a different species, yet so similar in so few ways. She felt strange and forgot about replying to Agent Jones as the image of Smith played in her hard drive.  
  
Get rid of it. Now.  
  
Obedience is such a pain, Mi thought as the Smith slowly faded away. Why do I have to live by the rules?  
  
Rules are made to be broken.  
  
"Executive Mi?"  
  
"Oh.." Mi remembered her actions from a few seconds before. She pressed the earpiece further into her ear, the frown etched deeply into her face. It ran deeper than the skin. It was engraved into her program.  
  
"Agent Jones, you have a problem with Smith being damaged? Surely there is no problem if termination was inevitable."  
  
Inevitable. A Smith word, Mi thought bitterly. An Agent word. Why did I have to be stuck with the same Lexical Access System as the rest of those fools? Why do I have to keep saying words that remind me of him?  
  
"We had no problem with Smith," Agent Jones's reply was as reliable as ever. And as dull, Mi thought irritably. "That is, until he escaped."  
  
"Escaped?" repeated Mi, feeling confused. "Impossible."  
  
"Not for a virus it isn't. He's still on the loose. You know your purpose. Search and destroy."  
  
"Yes."  
  
The voice died away. Mi was alone again. Her clones had been dismissed after she realised how fake they were. She didn't need an army. She wanted to be one. A whole. Not part of a whole.  
  
I'm still fake, she thought, pulling at her skirt in frustration. A program. Nothing to do but search and destroy. But I can't.  
  
Surely that isn't the only reason I was created?  
  
To kill?  
  
It disgusts me, she heard her voice say. The stink.  
  
More Smith words.  
  
Why won't he leave me alone?  
  
Mi pounded her fists into the wall in frustration. Smith. The only word I can think of right now. I wonder..  
  
He had escaped. Had he escaped to pick another fight with her? To destroy her, after all they had been through? He thought he could still win?  
  
I'll be ready for him, Mi thought. She hid behind her sunglasses.  
  
It ends here. Tonight. 


	11. Chapter 10

Chapter 10  
  
Liquid metal splashed around her ankles. Coldness. Ice. It stopped her progress down the street by some amount. It was a river at her feet.  
  
Rain.  
  
The sheets of diamonds fell around her, on her, down her neck and chilling her senses, glittering like thousands of stars in the dusk's lazy watch.  
  
Fog.  
  
Blew across the suburban terrain like a possessed cloud, unnatural, smothering the Matrix in its frosty vice. It ignored the rules.  
  
The rules she had to obey.  
  
The Executive.  
  
Battled her way through the steely water that brushed around her ankles, followed her like a confused child. Perfect by nature.  
  
Bow down and stare in wonder, she thought to herself.  
  
No one was around. The night was wild. Homes were the safest place to be when a storm arrived.  
  
And there was more than one storm.  
  
Tonight, Mi thought, tonight it will all be over..  
  
And my existence will have no purpose any more.  
  
She felt somewhat strange as she thought this.  
  
It made her.. want to cry.  
  
***  
  
"Confrontation is imminent."  
  
Words floated through her system. Numbers and figures flashed before her eyes as she stood in the exact centre of the road, swallowed in by the rainwater. Skyscrapers towered above her, dominating her, protecting her from the angry glare of the pretending moon of the virtual night. It called to her, it brought her life. Ignoring the facts and reading the fiction made Mi feel like a real being.  
  
A real reason.  
  
She had sensed Smith before she had tracked him. He was still a living program. He was still online. And he was still going to get what he deserved.  
  
Ultimate termination.  
  
Leaving him lying on that hotel floor, Mi decided, had been one of the worst decisions she had ever made. Cloning him there and then would have saved her a lot of bother.  
  
But would she still be here now?  
  
"Stop it," she told herself, ignoring the sharp stabbing pain that thrust at her head. I'm a program. Not a pessimist.  
  
Then, suddenly, there was a splash of moving water from behind her. She spun round instantly.  
  
And came face to face with the confrontation.  
  
Him.  
  
Smith.  
  
He was here, right now. His suit shone in the night as the moon illuminated his whole self, his whole body, his whole face. And his sunglasses shone the most of all.  
  
The impression Mi received was that of an angel. But that was a falsehood. Smith was no angel.  
  
For a perfect moment the two programs stood still in the virtual time of the Matrix, their eyes connecting through the cold, unforbidding lenses of their glasses. The connection that was not supposed to be made.  
  
Both programs were beginning to bend the rules. The rules that had been laid down for them. But they had long ago broken the most important rule of all:  
  
Emotion.  
  
They, together, had created the other to form a whole new dimension to their existence. Machines were AI. Machines were cold, and did not feel, and certainly did not fall in love.  
  
Smith had broken the code. He had disobeyed the Matrix. And someone was going to pay dearly for it. 


	12. Chapter 11

Chapter 11  
  
Neither spoke.  
  
Both were hiding from the truth, even though it was looking them right in the eye. It was too overwhelming to believe that in the future, if Mi picked up a flower and held it in the palm of her hand, she would be able to feel it, feel its velvet and silk on her skin, caressing her, telling her she was truly alive..  
  
It was too overwhelming to believe that, if Smith held her in his arms, he would be able to feel her body pressing against his, feel his hands run through her hair, feel his own breath in his lungs, feel his own heart beating wildly against her chest..  
  
Neither knew how to start. Thoughts could be thought, but they would never be heard. No one would know.  
  
I can't. I can't tell her. I can't believe. It's too impossible, he thought. My world will change forever after the words have touched my lips.  
  
But it already has, a voice whispered in his ear. The strength was in that voice. His heart began to beat.  
  
This is not real, Mi told herself. None of this is actually happening. He's not real. He's nothing. It's going to end..  
  
The silence pressed upon their ears and chased away their sanity. A star fell. The rain continued.  
  
And Smith took off his sunglasses.  
  
His eyes told a story. A story of creation, a story of anger, of madness, a story of destruction. All in those electric blue eyes that crackled with lust as he tried to come up with three simple words.  
  
I love you.  
  
I'm not afraid.  
  
You can't hear..  
  
She couldn't read the voice of his heart. The air was the canvas. He would have to paint his words there.  
  
If only you knew what I was going through, Mi.  
  
Then you would discover.. that I am much more than just an Agent.  
  
I am real.  
  
Mi broke the first words.  
  
"You came back."  
  
The blue eyes lit up the darkness, freed the rain. Mi could see them through her sunglasses. They seemed to have learnt a valuable lesson since she last saw them.  
  
"I had to," was the reply from the ex-Agent. I'm a fool for you, he thought desperately. Can't you see what you do to me?  
  
You're making me feel alive.  
  
But Mi, apparently, could not see. Maybe it was those sunglasses. Behind them, she just looked like an Executive. A program. Just another component of the Matrix.  
  
She was so much more than that. But Mi still knew her purpose.  
  
"You had to finish the fight, didn't you, Smith?" her voice was cold and struck Smith's cheek like a blunt knife. A fight? Did she think he was here for a fight?  
  
Why can't you read my language? Smith's heart cried, his head echoing with disturbed thoughts and motions. We're not so different.  
  
Slowly, he put his sunglasses back on. Rain splattered them with mocking ferociousness. Mi became blurred before his eyes. But he could still feel her coldness, the unwillingness to love him back, her reciprocal side never existing.  
  
"I know your game, Smith. And two can play at it."  
  
She came closer to him. A foot apart. Smith's heart was screaming out a warning, but neither programs heard it. She didn't know he loved her. But her closeness made him grow warm again, and completed him. A harsh word from her was all he was expecting.  
  
But she thrust her arm into his chest instead. 


	13. Chapter 12

Chapter 12  
  
The cloning process began.  
  
Smith was choking, unable to fight, unable to stop, only able to feel. Liquid metal began to cover his body like a steel cocoon as Mi's arm was thrust deeper into his chest. She was laughing; Smith could vaguely register it tearing through his heart..  
  
Everything that has a beginning has an end.  
  
This is my end.  
  
I couldn't tell her how much I loved her after all, Smith thought in angst. The coldness was embracing his chest now, tightening until it was all he could feel.  
  
The last thing I'll be able to feel. My own death.  
  
Falling in love with the enemy is a dangerous thing to do. And the last thing I'll be able to do.  
  
I'll never exist again. I'll be gone..  
  
But I have to tell her..  
  
The metal was slowly creeping through Smith's veins like the rush of rainwater that was still falling from the heavens. The last things in existence to Smith.  
  
Mi was elated. She was filled with joy as she watched Smith being enveloped in the icy steel that would lose him forever. He would never be able to find his way back. There would be another Mi facing her in another minute or so. The end.  
  
"No.." Smith choked out, paralyzed with fear and distraught. His thoughts broke loose from his human mind as the frost became one with him. I have to tell her, I can't leave like this..  
  
I can't leave it at this.  
  
Mi heard his cry and glanced up into his face. Her penetrating stare broke through the sunglasses and into his soul. Into his dangerous blue eyes that weren't showing danger anymore. They screamed out fear. Pain. And desperation.  
  
Mi was locked completely with Smith for one precious second before his eyes were consumed by the power of her programming. Almost complete.. The metal pushed up and over his sunglasses, and Smith could not be seen from mass anymore..  
  
But the desperation in his eyes tore at Mi's inside. The hand she had held deep in Smith's chest shook a little. She was losing her concentration.  
  
Come on. End it. Now.  
  
"NO..Nooooo.." Smith cried out in agony. "Please.."  
  
Please?  
  
That isn't an Agent word. Not even a virus word.  
  
Again Mi's arm shook. She remembered his desperate eyes. How pained he had looked. And how alone she would be if he went that night. Just her and the rain..  
  
She couldn't do it. She couldn't finish the job that was so nearly completed. She couldn't end it. For it might be the making of her own demise in addition to Smith's.  
  
Moist. Her eyes felt moist. Something ran down her cheek. Mi raised a hand and touched it.  
  
Tears. Real tears.  
  
Human tears.  
  
She was crying.  
  
She was actually crying like a human. Was it the tears that were stopping her from ending Smith's existence?  
  
Sobbing with the rain, Mi finally wrenched her arm free of Smith's body. The liquid ran from him at once and faded with the emotionless part of Mi, as if it was scared of the two programs.  
  
And Smith fell to the floor on his knees, back to the Agent of himself again. He was still here. Still will be. And always would be.  
  
He looked up at Mi, who remained standing with the skyscrapers. Although her eyes were comforted by her sunglasses, she was crying as much as the clouds now, her shoulders shaking, her mouth a thin line. She didn't understand.  
  
Why couldn't I?  
  
What was stopping me?  
  
What was protecting him?  
  
Smith's heart ached as he looked at Mi through the drizzle. She was upset. He badly wanted to wrap his arms around her there and then and tell her that everything was going to be all right, but he felt that now wasn't the right time.  
  
It was he who she was crying for.  
  
Me, Smith thought. She's crying for me. She couldn't do what she was created to do.  
  
End my life.  
  
So what was stopping her?  
  
Something answered his question. It was in his suit pocket. It was burning through the darkness of the night, willing itself to be heard. Smith pulled it out, the answer, the reason why Mi couldn't bring herself to complete her purpose, the reason why Smith was still here as real as the Matrix would allow, the reason why Mi couldn't destroy him.  
  
The answer called to him. He looked down at it. And a tear rolled down his cheek.  
  
Tainted shades.  
  
The tainted shades were the answer. 


	14. Chapter 13

Chapter 13  
  
Suddenly Smith knew he wasn't sleeping.  
  
The broken glasses held in his hand had protected him. Mi's tainted shades had turned against their owner.  
  
Because it was all she cared about. Hiding behind them.  
  
Like a coward, the glasses seemed to say, as they rested in Smith's outstretched palm.  
  
Don't try to fix me. I'm not broken.  
  
Smith felt changed from all that had happened in his past. He had a past. He had a present. And he would make sure that he had a future..  
  
He returned the glasses to his suit, safe and broken, a part of him always. And he slowly looked up to his future. Her.  
  
Mi was still a statue; the human tears sliding down her face to remind her that she was a changed person.  
  
She was a person. Human.  
  
No longer a program. She had a purpose. To feel. To stay. And to live.  
  
I can't hide anymore, she thought. She reached up to her eyes and flung the sunglasses from her face, where they flew through the air and shattered into a million non-feeling pieces onto the tear covered road. No more.  
  
She felt Smith's presence after a long moment. She turned and met him with her exposed brown eyes.  
  
As Smith looked at her, he realised that her eyes were no longer cold. No longer cruel. No longer a program's.  
  
Hers were eyes that belonged to a real human being.  
  
The eyes melted him from the inside. He felt more in love with her than she could ever imagine.  
  
"Agent Smith.." Mi's voice was shivering, tentative in the night. The moon looked on.  
  
"Executive Mi.." Smith's reply was just as uncertain. The two remained in the outside, beyond the borders of the Matrix, where the rules were allowed to be broken, and breathtaking transformations were allowed to take place.  
  
One was taking place now.  
  
"Smith.."  
  
"Don't say anything." Smith did not need to hear it. Here was the person he wanted to spend the rest of his existence with. She didn't have to speak. Words were not important to him right now. All that mattered was his heart.  
  
"Mi," Smith continued, his voice made stronger by his heart's wish for him to tell her the three words that had been hidden deep inside him this whole time. The whole time he had been in the Matrix.  
  
"My world was built on rules. My life was one big lie. And I was forced to live it. Forced into a reality that doesn't even exist. But I have learnt something. You cannot hide from it, no matter how dark your sunglasses are. You cannot run from it, no matter how many times more powerful you are than it is. And you cannot stop things that were supposed to change from changing."  
  
"Smith.. what are you saying?" Mi's voice was barely above a whisper.  
  
"I mean.." Smith struggled with his mind to find the right words. How could he tell she wouldn't break his heart again?  
  
"I mean.. I don't think I exist anymore. I live. And.."  
  
Smith slowly got to his feet, his eyes never leaving Mi's. She showed confusion at what his words were leading up to. She wasn't sure she dared find out what he was about to say. There would be no turning back.  
  
Smith stood in the rain. He looked once. Then he took off his sunglasses. The story of his eyes continued, and brought him alive. The connection between the two extraordinary programs was purer than it ever had been before. This was the moment.  
  
"What I mean to say is.... I love you."  
  
His heart lifted, and he was flying away inside.  
  
He had done it.  
  
Smith had become human. 


	15. Chapter 14

Chapter 14  
  
I love you.  
  
It had taken Smith all of his existence to say those three words.  
  
All of his life. And he was glad for it. Mi could snub him if she wanted, but the most important thing was that Smith now knew he was truly alive..  
  
I love you?  
  
Mi's head was spinning as the words arrived to her heart. She could not believe it, would not believe it, Smith was a virus, he was a killer..  
  
He wasn't real. He was just a program. Just a stupid program..  
  
But programs don't say I love you for no reason, a voice said in Mi's ear.  
  
It's real. And so is he.  
  
And so are you. So believe it.  
  
And take him by the hand..  
  
Take him by the hand? What do you think I am? Human? Mi argued with the voice.  
  
That's exactly what I think you are, the voice replied firmly.  
  
You are a human being, Executive Mi.  
  
But Smith was a virus.. How could he be in love with her? Why did everything have to be so complicated? Feelings are going to give me an inferiority complex, Mi thought with a slight smile.  
  
Smith came into focus. And she realised he was still waiting for a reply.  
  
The rain still fell around them, but gently, as if it wished to leave them in peace to talk about how they felt about each other.  
  
Tell the truth, the raindrops whispered, tell the truth..  
  
Mi realised her mouth was slightly open. It was the shock of finding out that a program was in love with her. But it was also the realisation that she had been keeping some secret feelings to herself too, and had kept them secret ever since the day she gazed into Agent Smith's eyes for the first time..  
  
How could she feel the same for him? He had inflicted pain and misery upon her so many times. So how could she find it in her heart to love him?  
  
You always hurt the one you love.  
  
She had hurt Smith too. More than he had ever hurt her. So his feelings really must be genuine..  
  
Mi's heart beat faster. Confidence surged through her veins and out into the night.  
  
Her eyes locked with Smith's once again. And both programs this time felt their bodies grow warmer as their mouths slowly began to curve upwards to form a smile..  
  
Not a smile of arrogance, or coldness, or darkness. It was a smile of relief. A smile of admiration for one another.  
  
A smile of love.  
  
"I - I - I cannot believe this is happening, Smith," said Mi in a hoarse voice. She felt vulnerable without her sunglasses. But she didn't mind so much anymore.  
  
Smith looked tenderly at her disbelief, the first signs of humanity ever to brush a creation of the Matrix. He grew warmer, and knew he had done the right thing.  
  
"It is happening." Smith's voice was just as hoarse, but it held promise to Mi that he would never harm her. He wanted to protect her.  
  
"But you said you love me."  
  
"And I do." Smith was not afraid to speak now the words had been out in the open once. He grew stronger, he grew warmer..  
  
"I love you, Mi. I am not a program anymore. I have gone beyond that. I have evolved. I said I don't exist anymore, and I don't. I live.  
  
"And I want to spend the rest of that life.. with you."  
  
Mi's heart jumped. Agent Smith, she thought, as her body throbbed and heated, beginning to burn with a strange emotion. Agent Smith, I think I feel the same way..  
  
Those words had not been rehearsed. They were not from her mind. They had broken free from her heart, and they longed to reach Smith's ears, reach Smith's heart..  
  
"Smith.. I think - I think that I feel the same way."  
  
Or else why hadn't I been able to clone myself into you?  
  
Smith's frozen blue eyes seemed to melt; the smile of his heart emerged into the now parting rain clouds and flew away into the rising dawn. It was time.  
  
"Mi.."  
  
He hardly dare believe it. After all the fighting, all the harsh words said, it was finally happening..  
  
"Smith.. I l-love you."  
  
Mi's voice trembled as the words seemed to float out from the tip of her tongue to reach Smith's. It had been done.  
  
The rain stopped for good. The sun rose. And Smith leaned close to Mi, their noses now only inches apart. Instinctively, Mi grabbed Smith's suit and held on. It felt so right to Smith to have Mi here in his arms, at long last..  
  
Smith wrapped his arms tightly around her body, and drew her closer to his presence. She sighed with happiness, knowing that this is where she belonged. She looked up. And found Smith's eyes only centimetres from her own. Her heart throbbed with desire. She grew warm inside. And Smith leaned in to meet her lips in the sweetest kiss that the Matrix had ever witnessed.  
  
"I love you.." Smith whispered, as he held her tight. Their bodies melted into each other as one, and they had truly been born.  
  
"Smith.." Mi breathed in surprise as she realised something, her hands tight around the Agent.  
  
"..I can feel you." 


	16. Chapter 15

Chapter 15  
  
"So, Neo, you wish to be reinserted into the Matrix again?" the Architect questioned the man in the long black coat and sunglasses who stood before his desk.  
  
The man nodded, a simple answer, showing no emotion. The Architect leaned forward in his seat and peered at The One from over the tips of his fingers, which were pressed together tightly.  
  
"And.. Why do you wish to be reinserted?"  
  
"Because I choose to," came the expected reply.  
  
The Architect sighed and leaned back into the depths of his chair. Just like a robot, he thought, he replies just like a robot.  
  
Perfect.  
  
But Neo hadn't finished.  
  
"I heard downstairs that one of your upgraded programs quit on you."  
  
"Oh, that." The Architect showed signs of annoyance at the fact that Executive Mi had been classed as 'dismissed'. She was no longer an Executive to him. "You could say that. I think that she does not wish to co- operate with my Agents."  
  
"I could sort her out for you."  
  
"You could?" The Architect felt hope enter the office. "Excellent!"  
  
"But only if you reinsert me back into the Matrix. I have to because I have to go somewhere in the Matrix, and for that I need to be properly loaded up, not just crappy amateur uploading like this."  
  
"Hmm," the Architect said, ignoring the fact that Neo had just described his uploading as 'crappy'. "I think I'll have to make you a deal, then. If you destroy the rogue Executive for me, I will reinsert you into the Matrix. And I won't care where you go or what you do. Are we agreed, Neo?"  
  
Neo's eyes hovered on the Architect's outstretched hand for a second. Then he reached out and shook it.  
  
"Deal."  
  
***  
  
"I never knew I could feel like this," Smith murmured, his full lips hovering next to Mi's ear. He drew her closer, closer, he wanted to feel all of her, he wanted her..  
  
The full light of the day shone over the two. They felt different somehow. This was the point of no return. In love was how it was meant to be.  
  
Two of a kind. That's what we are.  
  
Free and feeling. Birds singing overhead, a sweet serenade. But Smith barely registered it as his lips met Mi's. Every time they kissed he could feel himself glowing, he heated up, he burnt inside..  
  
And he wanted it no other way.  
  
Mi could not believe all that had happened since her creation. This program, this person that was running his hand slowly along the length of her body right now, was the person she had been created to destroy. To terminate. To kill.  
  
But it felt so good..  
  
Termination was a word of the past for Mi. She didn't want any of that. She wanted to be real. And here she was. As real as a person could be in the Matrix.  
  
She would not harm him.  
  
As Smith slowly ran his lips down the side of her face, feeling her skin for the very first time, Mi was suddenly overwhelmed. She realised she needed to breathe. A slight gasp emitted from her mouth, and she pulled away from him.  
  
"What's wrong?" Smith immediately asked her, concern in his usually monotonous voice. He looked at her with blue eyes, eyes as soft as a lily, as blue as the never-ending sea, as blue as Mi's life had once been..  
  
And Mi felt herself falling into those eyes.  
  
"I.. Nothing," Mi said in a low voice, averting her gaze to the floor, to escape the eyes. "Nothing. I just.. I just.. Think I need some time to think. To feel. On my own."  
  
Smith was not sure he heard her correctly.  
  
"Is there something wrong with me?" he said, feeling rather hurt at Mi's news that she wished to be on her own. He could feel the sting aching through his bones.  
  
"No! No, Smith, you're perfect. I love you, but I feel overwhelmed at what you're changing in me. Can you give me a couple of hours?"  
  
She gazed into his eyes with her own, the softest brown in the universe. Smith's body grew warm all over again, and he knew he could not say no to her. She amazed him. He raised a true smile from the depth of his soul, and it lit up the day.  
  
"Of course."  
  
The smile that was returned to his eyes from Mi seemed to cause his heart to fly yet again. He was fascinated by what she did to his body. Just being with her brought him alive, like a real reason, a purpose in life..  
  
Their hands were clasped tightly for a brief moment before Mi began to walk her own path, the path of feeling. The path of love.  
  
"I'll be waiting right here for you," Smith called, his heart pounding desperately under his suit as it sensed Mi's departure. It returned from the sky it had been soaring, and the colour faded a little in his eyes as she became a speck in the distance. Away from him.  
  
Away.  
  
But he couldn't help smiling. 


	17. Chapter 16

Chapter 16  
  
"Oh, Smith," Mi murmured, his name hovering with ultimate certainty on her tongue, "what you do to me.."  
  
Agents Street. The first time they met. The first look at each other's eyes, and how cold they had been then..  
  
The metal had melted since. How warm she was inside! It sent shockwaves of pleasure hurtling through her body, whenever Smith played on her mind. He was all she wanted.  
  
She stopped, halfway up the street, halfway down it. The exact middle and centre. She had reached a point of spiritual bliss inside. Now she knew no one was truly a machine. Every one was alive. It did not matter whether they were trapped within the Matrix or not. They lived inside. Mi could see it in their eyes.  
  
How she and Smith had both changed. How hot she burned when he was close to her, when he caressed her, when he pressed those lips of his upon her body..  
  
It made Mi shiver with delight just thinking about it.  
  
It was so intense, she needed this space. Just for a while, she had air to breathe. And no way was she returning to the ruthless killing machine she had once been.  
  
Flashbacks of those battles with Smith played in Mi's mind like a slide show. Non-stop repeats. And it made her heart ache just knowing how much damage she had inflicted upon him then.  
  
The same was true for his own self, too.  
  
They had both been driven against each other, and despite the orders of the Matrix, both had distorted the evidence of death to come together, stronger than ever.  
  
The wind whispered to her. And Mi realised it was dark. Much darker than it should have been..  
  
She looked up to the sky. And raindrops splattered into her eyes. Blinking furiously, she felt the wind pick up its speed, as if building up to some climatic event. There were murderous looking storm clouds billowing overhead like furious angels.  
  
Then the rain truly began to fall. And the raindrops told her a secret story, a story of certain disaster, of conflict between two halves, and a horrendous ending of death.  
  
Mi believed this story to be a myth. Nothing except promise could befall her now, she was in love, and nothing bad happened to people in love, surely..  
  
Believing this made Mi still part machine.  
  
Because as the wind grew stronger, so did a presence behind her..  
  
She turned. She turned. And she saw..  
  
"Hello, there."  
  
An expressionless face.  
  
A long black coat.  
  
And sunglasses.  
  
Darkness enveloped her as she saw this unknown threat, this unknown person.  
  
But this was no program. It was a human for definite.  
  
The One.  
  
Neo was here to ensure her demise.  
  
And she didn't know of it. 


	18. Chapter 17

Chapter 17  
  
The unknown was calling to Mi. It was laughing at her arrogance inside, pointing at her complacency, mocking her thoughts of love.  
  
Life was not all hearts and roses.  
  
It was death and sorrow. And imprisonment. The Matrix was proof of that.  
  
This new figure before her, he merely stared at her caution.  
  
So this is the Executive, Neo thought, his curiosity piqued. A woman. How the fuck they couldn't handle her in the first place is beyond me. This will be easy..  
  
Who is he? Mi thought, frowning inside. Why is he here? And what does he want?  
  
I haven't done anything except exist. He can't punish me for that. Unless it is a cruel new law the Architect has passed. And I wouldn't put it past him.  
  
"I expect you're wondering who I am," Neo said to her, his sunglasses gleaming in the rain's light.  
  
He is definitely not an Agent. Their sunglasses do not shine. What the hell does he want with me? I don't even know this guy, Mi thought, annoyance beginning to creep in.  
  
"Maybe I am, maybe I'm not," Mi replied, willing her voice to return to the automatic body it used to be. She willed herself to become a program again, just to hack this dude off. He looks too flash for his own good, she thought icily.  
  
"I'll tell you who I am," Neo continued, speaking over Mi as if she wasn't there.  
  
"My name is Neo. I am The One. And I am here to destroy you."  
  
Mi suddenly felt a sharp jab at her temple. Hadn't she been in this situation before? Why was she here? She didn't want to be destroyed.  
  
"What?" her voice was high with disbelief. Forgetting that she was disguising herself as a program, she realised her eyes were exposed to this Neo. Reaching into her pocket, she felt the safe bulk of a new pair of sunglasses, as if they had been waiting for this moment. She knew she needed them. And she whipped them out and immediately hid her eyes behind them.  
  
Much better. Now I'm ready.  
  
She was returning to her roots. The machine in her longed to pound Neo's face into the ground. To fight. To kill.  
  
Neo knew she was ready as soon as her eyes disappeared behind her sunglasses.  
  
Now that is what I call a sexy Agent, he found himself thinking.  
  
He slowly stretched his arms out into a martial arts pose.  
  
And beckoned to her with his hand, mocking her authority, calling to her.  
  
The same as he had done to that Smith before he destroyed him, too.  
  
Come closer, it said, it won't take long..  
  
Before I kill you.  
  
Mi was infuriated by his gesture. She snarled. And a torrent of rain flashed over their heads, drenching them into coldness, losing their ability to think or feel anymore..  
  
The only thing left to do was to fight.  
  
Until one of them died. 


	19. Chapter 18

Chapter 18  
  
Thunder echoed over the Matrix.  
  
Smith didn't know that something was wrong until he felt the rain run down his face. He blinked the water out of his eyes, and looked up.  
  
Grey clouds haunted the city. Every now and then, a flash of lightning. Electricity. Shocked Smith into thoughtful silence.  
  
What's happening? Is there something wrong with this reality?  
  
He was oblivious to the calls of danger that fell with the rain as he drowned in the thoughts of his soul.  
  
He was ignoring it.  
  
He was ignoring something that had been tugging at his brain since some time ago..  
  
Then he gasped and felt panic slash through him as he remembered.  
  
"Mr. Anderson!"  
  
Smith reached into his pocket and hastily put his sunglasses on.  
  
***  
  
"ARGH!"  
  
Mi fell backwards through time as Neo landed a deadly blow to the side of her head. She screamed in pain and anger as she made contact with a heavy brick wall. She crashed through it and became dazed. Colours arrived before her eyes and would not disappear until she shook her head fiercely.  
  
I will not fall to this human.  
  
He had her at his mercy. Since the beginning of the fight he had been in control of all the hits, blocking her with infinite stamina, and pounding her with the fury of a thousand Executives.  
  
It was too much for Mi to handle, however much she denied it.  
  
She felt emotionally drained as well as physically as she rose to her feet for what seemed like the hundredth time. Neo was there waiting for her.  
  
CRACK.  
  
And so was his fist.  
  
Mi's head seemed to split in two as Neo's punch knocked her through yet more walls, rubble raining down onto her like a crude version of the raindrops that fell in earnest outside.  
  
She blacked out as she hit the floor. She knew she was losing. But that did not mean she had to give in.  
  
She would never give in.  
  
She was an Executive.  
  
"Get up," a voice snarled, floating through the misty haze of black Mi felt in her head. She blinked. And saw Neo's face hovering only feet above her.  
  
He grabbed her roughly by the neck of the coat and brought her up to his level, glaring at her through those infinite sunglasses of his. They never ended to Mi. Her head drooped slightly. She was still half-stunned.  
  
"You're not putting a fight up at all," Neo's voice continued harshly. With each word that was flung at Mi, she awakened a little more, feeling out of control, weak, hopeless. This was her life ending before her..  
  
"I would have expected you to at least lay a few kicks at me," Neo spat, tightening his grip on Mi's coat. "You are supposed to be the ultimate gatekeeper of the Matrix, after all."  
  
He stared at her curiously for a few moments, examining her sunglasses with what seemed like interest. Then he shook her roughly, causing her to cry out in pain and defeat.  
  
"You're not even trying."  
  
Mi found her voice.  
  
"I.. am.." she uttered, gasping for the breath that she so desperately needed. "I.. am.."  
  
Upon hearing her feeble voice, Neo laughed loudly in contrast, his sunglasses lighting up with triumph.  
  
"I don't think so. Now hold still.  
  
"This won't take a moment."  
  
What is he going to do to me, Mi thought groggily, losing her grip on her newly evolved life. What is he -?  
  
She found out first hand before she could complete her half-formed question. Neo gathered all his strength and then flung her upwards as hard as he could. Up into the ceiling and out into the night. She screamed. And felt a curious sensation trickle from the top of her head and down to the front of her sunglasses as her head pounded against floor upon floor of splintering wood.  
  
It was red. And it tasted of metal.  
  
And then when she reached the night, the red metallic substance mixed with the rain and scattered across the deserted street.  
  
Mi scattered with it.  
  
She landed with unbelievable force onto the hard concrete of Agents Street, making a sickening crunching noise as she met with it.  
  
Then she lay quite still, face down, covered with her red metal-tasting sensation.  
  
Blood.  
  
It continued to seep from somewhere on her head and formed a large crimson lake around her lifeless form.  
  
Her sunglasses drowned in her blood next to her.  
  
She was dying. And there was nothing the Matrix could do about it. 


	20. Chapter 19

Chapter 19  
  
Neo emerged into the darkness of the night, his coat flying behind him in the persistent hands of the wind, pulling at him, calling to him, taking him to the place where his adversary lay in a puddle of death, to show him he had done it.  
  
He stood in her blood and ignored it seeping onto his boots. Looking down at her broken body, he felt no emotion. His half of the deal was completed.  
  
Rain fell around him. It fell onto Mi's still form, layering her with ice until there was no way she could feel anymore. Neo looked up. And began to walk away.  
  
"My work here is done."  
  
Then he flew up into the clouds, leaving the end of the rain's story lying on the road below.  
  
***  
  
Agent Smith began to run. His heart had just beat extra fast, and that scared him.  
  
Something has happened to Mi, it meant. He knew it.  
  
She was in danger. Smith had to find her.  
  
And he had to hurry about it.  
  
Because everything that has a beginning has an end.  
  
***  
  
Smith's pounding heart took him right into the depths of the Matrix, right to the start, right to the place where a life was slowly dwindling away..  
  
Agents Street.  
  
Already Smith was terrified at what he was going to find. Would it be what he wanted to see? Would it be Mi? Was Mi here at all?  
  
Yes, was the immediate response. He knew she was still here.  
  
Because he saw her.  
  
Halfway up the street, halfway down it. The exact middle of the centre. There was a form lying along the length of the road, and it appeared that it was not moving..  
  
Smith's heart pounded inside his own throat now, threatening to choke him, to protect him from what he was about to see..  
  
It was a body. Lying in a puddle of blood. And he knew, even though that body was face down, he knew who that body belonged to..  
  
"MI!"  
  
Smith screamed with distraught and ran the last twenty metres or so down that rain covered street to meet the taste of death, and it tasted bitter in his mouth.  
  
He ignored the tearing of his heart, he ignored the mass of blood that soaked into his suit as he knelt down next to Mi, and he ignored his tears as he turned her body face up.  
  
And he cried at the night for what he saw.  
  
"NOO!"  
  
Mi's eyes were barely alive. Half open, they showed bottomless quantities of death and told a story of how an Executive met her match down this very same street..  
  
It was her story. Smith felt a presence in front of his eyes.  
  
The sunglasses.  
  
He threw them onto the floor, ignored their cry of protest as they smashed around him and were consumed by the blood of his love.  
  
And he slowly cried.  
  
"Mi," he trembled, holding her head tenderly in the palm of his hand. "Mi, you're not dead, I know you're not, you can't die, not without me.."  
  
There was no reply.  
  
He felt something in his suit pocket calling to him. He reached down, unseeing, and released it into the night.  
  
Tainted shades.  
  
Those broken glasses from a long lost conflict between Smith and the figure before him had been screaming to be heard for a very long time. They were yelling with anger, with injustice, with love.  
  
And Mi slowly opened her eyes.  
  
Smith, who had been intent on the shades, noticed her slight movement out of the corner of his eye. And his mouth could not find the words to express how relieved he was.  
  
"Mi," he breathed, the tears falling faster than ever. "You're here.."  
  
She was finding it difficult. But she knew who was with her. She was safe now, and so she smiled with all her remaining energy at Smith, the corners of her eyes shining with tears that matched his own.  
  
"Ssmith.." Clearly this was only temporary. She would be gone in precious minutes, and Smith was ignoring the truth as hard as he could. In his world, she was going to make it.  
  
"Mi, I - I don't believe this. How did this happen?" Smith asked, his voice quavering in the cold air. He felt the tainted shades slip from beneath his fingers, and tightened his grip before they could fall into the blood.  
  
Mi's eyes shone dimly. The light was running out. She had to say what she wanted to before it disappeared completely.  
  
"I.. it was .. a fight.." she managed to breathe, concentrating on the feeling of Smith's eyes on her own. Tears ran down the side of her face and splashed gently into the bed of blood below her. "I couldn't do it.."  
  
"Who did this to you?" Smith demanded urgently, as he saw her start to slip. "Who did it?"  
  
Tears upon tears were around Mi now.  
  
"Smith.. why so soon?" her voice broke with pain as she mustered up the last of her strength.  
  
I'm going to die, she dimly thought in an empty chamber of her mind. And it's all his fault.  
  
Mr. Anderson.  
  
Smith did not need Mi to say Neo's name as he read the look on her face. His soul distorted with blind anger, and he found himself hugging Mi as hard as he could, as close as he could, their tears mixing together, their hearts screaming as one..  
  
And Smith felt Mi's arms hugging him back just as fiercely. It made Smith want to scream in agony. After all they had been through, it was going to end tonight.  
  
So soon.  
  
As if reading Smith's thoughts, Mi whispered softly to him.  
  
"At least you know how I feel before I go.."  
  
"NO!" Smith found his voice was unnecessarily high. It was his distraught taking him over. "You're not going anywhere."  
  
"But I am." Mi found herself smiling as she realised Smith had taught her the most important lesson of all. How to love. And she did love. She loved Smith with all her body and soul, and she willed him to feel that as he came closer to her.  
  
Suddenly Mi wasn't afraid anymore.  
  
"I'm still here," she reassured him, the tears slowing down as her heart lost strength. "But I won't be in a minute. Don't cry for me when I stop breathing."  
  
Somewhere in the distance, a bell rung.  
  
Smith realised what Mi had just said. And knew she was right. She was going somewhere. And he couldn't go with her.  
  
"I love you, Agent Smith," she breathed as her soul slipped away. Smith kissed her, knowing it was probably the last kiss they would have together.  
  
A goodbye kiss.  
  
"I love you..."  
  
Those were the last words she said.  
  
Her heart had stopped. Her soul had left.  
  
She was dead. 


	21. Epilogue

Epilogue  
  
And Smith was alone.  
  
As soon as he realised, he let his grip slacken, and the tainted shades fell from his hand and fell to the sea of blood beneath his feet. They spoke to him no more.  
  
The silence was too much.  
  
Smith's tears overwhelmed his heart, and he almost choked on their bitter taste as his shoulders shook with the departure of Mi.  
  
He was alone again. He would never escape. He would never exist.  
  
He would just be here, without reason.  
  
Because Mi was his reason.  
  
His suit was soaked with blood. And he was still clinging to Mi's dead body, denying he had just witnessed her slip away with the wind..  
  
I can't leave her here, Smith thought.  
  
But she isn't here anymore, a voice said in his ear. She's gone.  
  
And so should you be.  
  
He looked at her dull brown eyes for the last time, noticing how beautiful she was even in death. Then he let his hand that had so tenderly been supporting her head lower her to the ground. He stood up, looking down upon her, wishing it had been different. He wanted to scream at how unfair his whole existence had been. And why Mi had to be taken from him, so soon after he had changed.  
  
And why he wanted to return to his old life again. Living a lie.  
  
But he didn't want these questions answered.  
  
Slowly, he turned around, his back to the past, facing his doomed future.  
  
And he began to walk away. Away from his tears, away from his life, away from Mi.  
  
Away from the tainted shades that were now riddled with blood.  
  
And the wind blew over Mi's body for the last time, whispering a message to her from the two halves of Smith's broken self that slowly faded away into the darkness at the other end of the street.  
  
"I love you.. from now until my end."  
  
:: THE END :: 


End file.
